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Chiral phonons

Orbital current from phonons

Chiral phonons, quasiparticles of lattice vibrations arising from circular atomic motion, hold potential as carriers of angular momentum for next-generation technologies. Experiments show that they can generate orbital currents under thermal gradients.

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Fig. 1: Spin Seebeck effect (SSE) induced by magnons and orbital Seebeck effect (OSE) induced by chiral phonons.

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Correspondence to Takashi Kikkawa.

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Kikkawa, T. Orbital current from phonons. Nat. Phys. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-03139-6

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